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Dear {FName}, December 1, 2012

We hope you had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday!

We’re not going to bother telling you how many shopping days are left until Christmas, we figure you can do that math yourself.


Did you know that for more than 15 years, TruckDriver.com has been matching truck drivers all over the USA and Canada with top trucking firms seeking qualified truck drivers and owner operators?

Did you know that all a driver needs to do is fill out one simple, free application to be considered for dozens of  trucking companies across North America?

Did you know that driver recruiters can quickly zero in on the right truck drivers for their company and receive only the driver applications fitting their hiring criteria?

It’s all true! And, it’s all available at TruckDriver.com 


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TCA Launches Online Certificate Program
New Truckload Academy course prepares fleet managers for success in their field

 The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) proudly announces the launch of its latest Truckload Academy offering: an online certificate program for fleet and driver managers. The Highly Effective Fleet Manager, the first Academy program to offer a certificate, is a seven-part, online instructional series that focuses on the business, leadership, communication, and coaching skills that fleet managers must have to succeed at their critical role within a trucking company.

“The new certificate program is the next step in the evolution of TCA’s Truckload Academy,” said Chris Burruss, TCA’s president. “The Academy is one of our most dynamic resources, helping carriers understand and overcome the challenges of an ever-changing operating environment.  Its educational offerings and real-world solutions play a big role in fulfilling the association’s mission ‘To create success for the truckload industry and the communities it serves.’”

The new program is divided into modules covering a wide variety of topics, including the role of the fleet manager as a business leader and tactics for ensuring top performance from drivers. Participants will develop key leadership and communication skills and will learn how structured coaching and behavioral knowledge can be applied to driver management. The program also outlines best practices that relate specifically to the fleet manager position.

The Highly Effective Fleet Manager can be purchased from the Truckload Academy Live Learning Center at www.truckload.org/LLC. Although anyone can buy the program for $599, TCA members pay only $459 (that is a discount of $140). Once purchased, the program can be accessed 24/7 for two years via an Internet connection. Modules are fully interactive, with links participants can click on for further information and quizzes to help measure comprehension. When finished with the instructional series, fleet managers must pass the online final exam and then will receive a certificate of completion that is suitable for framing.

“I have been anxiously anticipating the release of this new program from TCA’s Truckload Academy,” said Pete Hill, vice president of Hill Brothers Transportation. “My company has been involved with several of TCA’s training programs in the past, and the quality has been excellent. If the new fleet manager program is as good as what we experienced before, my company will definitely be participating.”

The Highly Effective Fleet Manager is the first of two certificate programs that TCA has been working on. In the spring of 2013, it plans to unveil a similar program for recruiters. While both programs will begin as certificate programs, TCA’s goal is to eventually change them into full certification programs, where participants earn a professional designation and must take ongoing continuing education in order to maintain their certification.


PrePass


Mistaken Identity: It can be worse than having your privacy invaded
If 2 out of 5 people suffer from invasion of privacy does that mean three enjoy it?
Derek Hinton - DOTJobHistory.com

In Kennebunk, Maine last month, a man was having a nice quiet evening when he phone began ringing and people were at his door. In going to the door, there were Television news crews all wanting to know if he had visited a prostitute. Unmentioned was whether he was married, but regardless, that’s a unpleasant way to end a day.

The man’s name was Paul Main, and he had not visited a prostitute. What caused this invasion of Paul’s privacy? Earlier in the week, authorities had released a list of 150 men accused of paying a fitness instructor for sex. However, a judge ruled that including identification information such as address, middle initial and age might violate the privacy of the accused—so most of the identifying information was withheld. This would be similar to your local sports announcer reporting the football scores of your favorite teams as “14-7,” “21-10” and “35-27.” The scores may be accurate but that identifying information can be important. And in this case, to protect the privacy of the accused, a lot of innocent guys had their privacy invaded. (The judge did later reverse himself and release the identifying information.)

Having your privacy mistakenly invaded is one thing. It’s another to not get a job because of mistaken identity.

In employment screening, particularly in the use of some criminal record sources, the main reason for an inaccurate report of an infraction, misdemeanor or felony under your name is that the report does not even pertain to you—it is about somebody else, whose identifying information is close to yours. Someone out there among the 300 million US citizens kind of "looks" like you. This identity confusion is usually not the result of someone stealing your identity; rather it's a result of the how the records are obtained.

For example, there is relatively little identity confusion with driving records (MVRs). While a violation shown may be the result of a mistake by law enforcement (or a violation from out of state never makes it to your MVR), chances are that an employer is not going to order an MVR on you but get someone else's driving history. This is because MVRs have good identifying information-your driver license number is unique, so no other person (in your state) will have the same number. As a backup, the MVR record contains your name, address, date of birth, physical description, etc.

Contrast this with the use of a search of a proprietary criminal record database, compiled by a private company from various public sources, which many companies use. A criminal record database search usually involves searching hundreds of millions of records, many that have a common name and date of birth. On any one day, there are many babies born in the United States with at least the same first and last name. And the day you were born, it is possible that there was someone else in the United States born with your name. Even if you think the chances are 1 in a million against this, think about it this way: there are 300 of you running around. And one or more of these people may be naughty and have criminal records-that a potential employer may order and assume belongs to you.

What can be done?

Well first, as outlined in the past two columns, the FTC is cracking down on employment screeners who report information without maximum possible accuracy. But mistakes will never be fined away.

Recruiters and safety directors should understand the identity issues that come with obtaining pre-employment screening information and review any records received carefully. Make sure middle names match if present. Look at the physical descriptions that come back. If your applicant is a black male and the record is on a white male, understand how this can happen given the limited identifiers used to search.

Drivers should know what will show up on a database search and be ready to dispute errors before being turned down for a job. If you're turned down for a job because of a criminal record that is not you, be sure you see the record. Even if you do legitimately have a record of your own, your record may have misinformation on it.


The TruckDriver.com Thanksgiving Turkey Survey has closed, but we’re too stuffed to do anything but report the results! Here they are:   

Will your Thanksgiving turkey be frozen or fresh?    

Fresh - 40%
Frozen - 46%
I don’t know, I’m dining out - 14%

Speaking of turkeys, now that the election dust has mostly settled, take the TruckDriver.com Fiscal Cliff Survey and let us know what you think the turkeys in Congress are going to do.

Until next time, keep on truckin’ and please drive safely.

* * * * *

Your Comments Are Always Welcome
We do like to hear from you and invite you to let us know how we can improve the e-Report. Please send your ideas and suggestions to: jobs@truckdriver.com


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~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~


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